Tumbleweed Whenever you think of the Wild West of America, you think of cowboy movies and tumbleweed, perpetually tumbling around a desolate landscape.
Salt lowers the freezing/melting point of water, so in both cases the idea is to take advantage of the lower melting point. Ice forms when theÂ­ temperature of water reaches 32 degrees Fahrenheit (0 degrees Celsius). When you add salt, that temperature drops: A 10-percent salt solution freezes at 20 F (-6 C), and a 20-percent solution freezes at 2 F (-16 C). On a roadway, this means that if you sprinkle salt on the ice, you can melt it. The salt dissolves into the liquid water in the ice and lowers its freezing point.
When salt is added to water it lowers the freezing point. In other words the water needs to be chilled to a temperature lower than 0Â°C (say -2Â°C for example) in order to change to ice. Another way to say the same thing is that salt allows water to exist as a liquid at a temperature lower than 0Â°C.